Imane Khelif has lodged a legal complaint over reports that surfaced earlier this week and that claim to have evidence that the boxer has XY chrosomes. The Olympic gold medallist has suffered a barrage of online abuse since competing in Paris.
I thought they were trans
That is because you are the victim of a misinformation campaign. You are in a good place now to begin learning from reliable, vetted sources.
That’s good.
Khelif was the subject of a misinformation campaign specifically targeted toward Russians to disqualify her from competing at a high level against Russian athletes. She is not trans, and has never identified as other than female. There is strong indication that falsified hormone tests were used to remove her as a threat to Russian boxers.
Khelif reached the final of the 2023 world championships before she was abruptly disqualified by the IBA, which cited high levels of testosterone in her system. The circumstances of that disqualification have been considered highly unusual ever since it happened, and Khelif called it “a big conspiracy” at the time.
She had previously competed without issues and was disqualified by the sport’s governing body only after she defeated Russian boxer Azalia Amineva in the 2023 tournament. The IBA is controlled by Umar Kremlev, who is Russian and brought in the state-owned energy supplier Gazprom as its primary sponsor and moved much of the governing body’s operations to Russia.
